Final Push is On for an Aug. 1 Courthouse Opening

The is now scheduled to open on Aug. 1.

The opening of the $60 million, 167,000-square-foot, six-story building at the corner of Maryland Avenue and East Jefferson Street had been scheduled for June 27 but final inspections and furniture moving has pushed back the opening date.

“The courts are moving in the furniture and so we’re just doing a final punch list,” Carl Fox, the project manager with the state Department of General Services, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

New chairs are being moved in this week and the building is being prepared for final elevator and fire inspections, Fox said.

“We had to correct some code problems for the elevator inspection and an earlier atrium smoke test yielded some issues with the atrium exhaust fans,” he said.

The fans are used to clear smoke from the building in the event of a fire. Contractors are reevaluating the return air fans and using a new smoke generator after an initial smoke test that used too much smoke and the wrong kind, Fox said.

The final push to move court furniture and records is expected to begin July 25, with the courthouse seeing its first case docket during the following week, Fox said. A vendor has been installing new furniture for about three weeks, including workstations and power poles to house voice, data and power cords, he said. 

The courts still have records to move from the District Courthouse across East Jefferson Street and must install its CourtSmart digital court recording system and server, Fox said.

Bad weather and delayed safety inspections had already pushed the scheduled opening date back from December to February to June.